Book ends

ABSTRACT

One piece of sheet material formed to provide a horizontal base with a vertical book-supporting panel at one edge of the base. An inclined ledge is provided at the upper edge of the panel and the side edges of the panel are formed with a pair of side flanges. A central flange is struck out from the panel midway between and parallel to the side flanges, and either of the side flanges may coact with the central flange to afford a pair of finger pieces for handling the book end. The base of the book end is equipped with a magnet for holding the same on metal shelving.

United States Patent Charles E. Weyll, Jr.

P.0. Box 62, Glen Cove, NY. 1 1542 [21 1 Appl. No. 839,849

[22] Filed July 8, 1969 [45] Patented Sept. 14, 1971 [72] inventor [54] BOOK ENDS 1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figs.

Primary Examiner-Roy D. Frazier Assistant Examiner-Abraham Frankel Attorney-Jerry B. Cesak ABSTRACT: One piece of sheet material formed to provide a horizontal base with a vertical book-supporting panel at one edge of the base. An inclined ledge is provided at the upper edge of the panel and the side edges of the panel are formed with a pair of side flanges. A central flange is struck out from the panel midway between and parallel to the side flanges, and either of the side flanges may coact with the central flange to afford a pair of finger pieces for handling the book end The base of the book end is equipped with a magnet for holding the sameon metal shelving.

PATENTEI] SEPI 41am INVENTOR:

CHARLES E. WEYLL, Jr.

BOOK ENDS This invention relates to new and useful improvements in book ends and in particular the invention concerns itself with a book end which is formed from a single piece of sheet material and is provided with a magnet for holding the same in position on metal book shelves.

Book ends of this general type are well known in the art, their main advantage being that the magnetic holding means avoids the necessity of providing the book end with a projecting tongue such as otherwise would have to be inserted under books on the shelf in order to hold the book end in position. Such well-known book ends usually have a horizontal supporting base at the underside of which the magnet is located, and a vertical book-supporting panel which extends upwardly from one edge of the base. In some instances the upper edge of the vertical panel is equipped with an inclined ledge on which a book may be rested in a slanting position, and it is also old in the art to strike out a pair of flanges from the center portion of the panel to serve as finger pieces by which the book end may be handled.

With this background, the principal object of the present invention is to structurally and functionally improve the handling facilities of the book end, that is to say, the finger piece arrangement by which the book end is handled during placement or adjustment on or removal from book shelves. As such, the invention provides the vertical panel of the book end with only one centrally disposed flange, and two side flanges are provided at the opposite side edges of the panel so that either of the side flanges may coact with the central flange in affording a pair of finger pieces for handling the book end. Such an arrangement facilitates reversibility so that the book end may be placed at either the right-hand end or the left-hand end of a row of books on a shelf, or may be supported in an inverted position from the next higher shelf, yet in any such condition a pair of finger pieces are conveniently available for handling the book end.

With the foregoing more important object and features in view and such other objects and features as may become apparent as this specification proceeds, the invention will be understood from the following description taken in conjunction with he accompanying drawings, wherein like characters of reference are used to designate like parts, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a book end in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially in the plane of the line 2--2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially in the plane of the line 33 in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary elevational view on a reduced scale, showing a plurality of the book ends in use.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings in detail, the boil: end is designated generally by the numeral 10 and is formed integrally from a single piece of sheet material such as metal for example. The book end comprises a horizontal base 11 having a front edge 12, a rear edge 13 and a pair of side edges 14, the sheet material being angulated to provide a vertical book-supporting panel 15 which extends upwardly from the front edge 12 of the base 11. The upper edge of the panel 15 may be provided with an inclined ledge 16 which extends upwardly and rearwardly above the base 11, so that a book in a slanting position may be rested on the ledge 16 as will be hereinafter described.

The front edge portion of the base I1 is stopped upwardly from the rear edge portion as indicated at 17, so as to provide a shallow, downwardly open seat for a magnetic strip 18 which is adhesively or otherwise suitably held in the seat flush with the underside of the rear edge portion of the base, as will be apparent from FIGS. 1 and 2. The magnetic strip serves to firmly but removably hold the book end in position, either on top of or under a book shelf of ferrous material.

The essence of the invention resides in a particular arrangement of flanges which are provided on the panel 15 to serve as finger pieces handling of the book end. Specifically, this arrangement comprises a pair of vertical side flanges 19 which are provided at the opposite side edges of the panel 15 and extend rearwardly therefrom in substantial alignment with the side edges 14 of the base 11, while a single, vertical center flange 20 is struck out from the center portion of the panel 15 and extends rearwardly therefrom midway between and parallel to the side flanges 19, as will be clearly apparent from FIGS. 1 and 3. The struck-out center flange 20 leaves an opening 21 in the panel 15, as illustrated.

While the lower ends of the side flanges 19 may extend to the base 11, their upper ends terminate in coplanar relation with the upper edge 15 of the panel 15 and are thus spaced away from the inclined ledge 16. However, the lower end of the central flange 20 is spaced upwardly from the base 11 and its upper end terminates below the level of the upper edge 15' of the panel 15. Thus, when the flange 20 is struck out from the panel 15, the lower and upper ends of the resultant opening 21 do not coincide with the bend lines between the base 11 and panel 15 and between the panel 15 and the ledge 16, and it is possible to form the book end without any danger of the material cracking at the bend lines as it could if the ends of the opening were coincident therewith.

In actual practice the width or transverse dimension of the book end may be on the order of about 5 inches,, which distance is too great for the two side flanges 20 to be spanned by fingers of the hand in a comfortable manner. However, provision of the center flange 20 divides this distance into two halves, so that the span between either of the side flanges and the center flange is on the order of about 2 /2 1/2 inches which may be comfortably spanned by the fingers when either of the side flanges is selectively used in cooperation with the center flange as a pair of finger pieces for handling the book end.

Such selective use of the two side flanges in conjunction with the single center flange affords reversible use of the book end as will be apparent from FIG. 4 which shows that the book ends may be placed at the right-hand end and/or the left-hand end of a row of books 22 on a shelf 23 of a bookcase 24, or even at the underside of the next higher shelf 23, while in all instances one of the side flanges 19 is disposed at or near the outside of the shelf for convenient cooperation with the center flange 20 in affording a pair of finger pieces for handling of the book end, as in installation, removal or adjustment. The nu meral 22' indicates one of the books resting in a slanting position on the ledge 16 of one of the book ends.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A book end formed integrally from one piece of sheet material and comprising a horizontal base having from and rear edges and a pair of side edges, a vertical panel extending upwardly from the front edge of said base for supporting a book in a standing position, an inclined ledge provided at the upper edge of said panel and slanting upwardly and rearwardly above the front edge portion of said base for supporting a book in a slanting position, a pair of vertical side flanges provided at the respective side edges of said panel and extending rearwardly therefrom in substantial alignment with the side edges of the base, the upper ends of said side flanges being substantially coplanar with the upper edge of said panel and spaced away from said inclined ledge, a single vertical center 1 flange struck out from the center portion of said panel and extending rearwardly therefrom midway between and parallel to i said side flanges the lower end of said central flange being spaced upwardly from said base and its upper end being located below said upper edge of said panel, either of said side flanges coacting selectively with said central flange to provide a pair of transversely spaced finger pieces for handling the book end, the front edge portion of said base being flat but being stepped upwardly from the rear edge portion thereof to form a shallow downwardly and forwardly open seat, and a magnetic strip mounted in said seat, the thickness of said mag netic strip corresponding to the upward step between the front and rear edge portions of said base so that the magnetic strip omplementally fillssaid s eat a ndth e underside of the strip is in continuous coplanar relation with the underside of said rear edgeportion of the base. 

1. A book end formed integrally from one piece of sheet material and comprising a horizontal base having front and rear edges and a pair of side edges, a vertical panel extending upwardly from the front edge of said base for supporting a book in a standing position, an inclined ledge provided at the upper edge of said panel and slanting upwardly and rearwardly above the front edge portion of said base for supporting a book in a slanting position, a pair of vertical side flanges provided at the respective side edges of said panel and extending rearwardly therefrom in substantial alignment with the side edges of the base, the upper ends of said side flanges being substantially coplanar with the upper edge of said panel and spaced away from said inclined ledge, a single vertical center flange struck out from the center portion of said panel and extending rearwardly therefrom midway between and parallel to said side flanges the lower end of said central flange being spaced upwardly from said base and its upper end being located below said upper edge of said panel, either of said side flanges coacting selectively with said central flange to provide a pair of transversely spaced finger pieces for handling the book end, the front edge portion of said base being flat but being stepped upwardly from the rear edge portion thereof to form a shallow downwardly and forwardly open seat, and a magnetic strip mounted in said seat, the thickness of said magnetic strip corresponding to the upward step between the front and rear edge portions of said base so that the magnetic strip complementally fills said seat and the underside of the strip is in continuous coplanar relation with the underside of said rear edge portion of the base. 